Posts Tagged Travel

“Nestled in the heart of Tuscany and built on three hills, Siena is protected by well preserved walls and prohibits driving within most of the city. If you’ve ever been around Italian drivers, then you will be thankful for the opportunity to walk without fear.” Emily Corak remembers her cappucino days.

Before heading for the heights of Britain’s biggest mountain range, Run with the Yak’s Martin Forster takes a look around some of the lower lying winter attractions around Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands.

“I came to the Cairngorms in the Scottish Highlands thinking that a jaunt up the Lake District was going up a mountain. What was I thinking?” Martin Forster gets more than he bargained for in the Scottish Highlands.

You can find people lounging on the beach or sitting for hours smoking a hookah, while others travel an hour away for rigorous hiking in the Qadisha valley. Lebanon is its own yin and yang; there is literally something for everyone here.” Emily Corak visits the Paris of the Middle East and falls in love.

Today, at a temple on the side of a mountain, I felt compelled to walk through the falling snow across the frozen courtyard and give my gloves to a Buddhist monk. Have I had a spiritual experience? I have cold hands, I can tell you that much.” Suffice to say, it’s been another weird week.

“Sipping a beer beneath a giant red Lenin flag, flanked by an equally large poster of Jimi Hendrix and watching a six foot, topless Chinese transsexual doing stand-up comedy, it’s hard to escape the notion that Haerbin is an unusual place.”

Run with the Yak’s Fiona Wylie heads to Northern China to check out Haerbin’s famous Ice Festival.

“In front of you, you see the earth swell like a great belly, then the rock begins to split before your very eyes. Before you see anything, you’re hit by a blast of baking heat that dries your eyeballs. As you step back from the searing heat, a tongue of red lava slides out into the open. The oxygen hits it, the red glow becomes intense and tiny flames lick up the surface.”

Run with the Yak’s Martin Forster finds out there’s more to Hawai’i than beaches, boards and bikinis, as he plays with lava and rolls up in a hippy town that time forgot, but money didn’t.

Arriving at one of the most beautiful monasteries he has ever seen, Run with the Yak’s Martin Forster quickly discovers there is something not quite right about Kumbum. Contains video from our ‘Travels in China’ series.